354 
M A N A T I. 
certain that they bring but one young at a time,, 
which they fuckle by two teats placed between the 
breaft. 
They are vafdy voracious and gluttonous, and 
feed not only on the fuci that grow in the fea, but 
fuch as are hung on the edges of the fhore. When 
they are filled they fall aileep on their backs. Du¬ 
ring their meals, they are fo intent on their food, 
that any one may go among them and chufe which 
he likes belt. Peter Martyr gives an inftance of 
one that lived in a lake of Hifpaniola for five and 
twenty years, and was fo tame as to come to the 
edge of the fhore on being called* and would even 
perform the part of a ferry, and carry feveral people 
at a time on its back to the oppofite fhore*. 
Their back and their Tides are generally above 
water, and as their fkin is filled with a fpecies of 
lotife peculiar to them, numbers of gulls are conti¬ 
nually perching on their backs and picking out the 
infects. 
They continue in the Kamtfchatkan and American 
feas the whole year* but in winter are very lean, fo 
that you may count their ribs. They are taken by 
harpoons fattened to a ftrong cord, and after they 
are flruck it requires the united force of thirty men 
to draw them on fhore. Sometimes when they are 
transfixed they will lay hold of the rocks with their 
paws, and flick fo faff as to leave the fkin behind 
before, they can be forced off. When a Manati is 
ftruck its companions fwim to its afliftance* feme 
* As quoted by Purcbas } V. 888. 
will 
